Wavelink receives strategic Infinigate investment

Wavelink is poised to accelerate its growth through a strategic investment from the Infinigate Group, a European distributor specialising in cybersecurity, cloud and network infrastructure. 

Infinigate has secured a majority stake in Wavelink, which will solidify its current plans to explore geographic expansion into New Zealand and it will continue to operate autonomously with its existing management team, retaining a significant share of the business.

In an interview with ARN, Wavelink CEO Ilan Rubin said he couldn’t comment on the financial specifics of the deal but noted that he would continue to head operations in A/NZ.

“As of 4 July, Infinigate will take a stake in the business. It will come into the business and partner with the existing holders to build it further, drive growth and give us more muscle and power to take more offerings to market,” said Rubin.

He noted that Wavelink expects “another four or five local team members to join in July, with additional headcount planned for next year.”

“We’re currently working through the specifics, but it represents significant growth,” he said, “We’re looking at a 20-25 per cent increase in headcount compared to last year’s 22 per cent increase.

“While others in the market may be slowing down, we’re accelerating.”

The partnership between Wavelink and Inifinigate, which has been in the works for the past two years, has bolstered this growth.

“[The partnership] was quite organic and occurred through various conversations,” said Rubin. “We weren’t looking at bringing in additional investment — on the other side, it wasn’t necessarily looking at growing outside EMEA.

“There were significant synergies between the businesses, and that’s where the conversation got meaty. The synergies were aligned, and we’re doing the same things.”

While the investment will bring opportunities for growth at Wavelink, the distributor doesn’t plan to take on a significant number of vendors.

“We’ve identified which vendors we have a core strategy with,” he said. “It’s not about extending our vendors portfolio from, let’s say, 12 or 14 to 25. We’re not a catalogue environment. It maintains the same strategy we’ve built over a long time.”

Wavelink considers its channel partner needs beyond selling its products because partners are looking for different ways to consume various elements of services, said Rubin.

“They are seeking marketing services, lead generation, and programs to drive and build pipelines,” he said.

“On the other side, vendors are looking for similar but distinct needs. They seek more intimacy, drive, and growth in certain market aspects. Since they can’t handle everything alone, they seek technical and enablement services and significant marketing support.”

According to Rubin, these are the three key pillars vendors focus on, aside from the basic distribution strategy.

“However, deals are becoming more complex, requiring vendors to rely more on building partners and channels,” he said. “They can’t aggregate headcount as previously, which is their biggest challenge today. Three years ago, they could easily increase their headcount. Now, they depend more on distribution and partners to drive sales outcomes.”

In June, Wavelink expanded its security operations (SecOps) portfolio with a security information and event management (SIEM)-as-a-service offering for A/NZ partners in conjunction with Laminar Communications.